The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile machine and a copier, and also relates to a developer storage body and an image forming unit used in the image forming apparatus.
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit having a photosensitive body (i.e., an image bearing body) on which a latent image is formed. The image forming unit further has a developer storage body in which a developer (i.e., a toner) for developing the latent image is stored.
Japanese Laid-open publication No. 2002-072657 discloses a developer storage body having a swing member for scraping a developer from an inner wall of the developer storage body. An upper end of the swing member is fixed to an upper region of the inner wall of the developer storage body. A lower end of the swing member is contactable with an agitation member rotatably provided in the developer storage body. As the agitation member rotates, the swing member vibrates, which helps scrape the developer from the inner wall of the developer storage body.
However, it is still difficult to sufficiently scrape the developer from the inner wall of the developer storage body.